This is Day 5 of GOP War on Newt Gingrich

The Republican Posse’s bloodthirsty pursuit of Newt Gingrich, which began this past Sunday morning when the Newtster dissed Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan on “Meet The Press,” continues unabated on this Thursday morning.

Nothing less than a Gingrich withdrawal from the presidential race seems likely to satisfy the vigilantes in his own party.

I’ve personally counseled Newt to hang in there (see HERE), but I’m beginning to doubt that he has the gumption to persist.

Meanwhile, the buzz over Gingrich’s troubles continues to preoccupy the chattering classes. A few examples:

Steve Kornacki ADMITS that he, along with other pundits, has been mistaken about the new Newt:

For the past decade, much of the press and political commentariat — present company very much included — bought into and advanced a notion that, it has become clear these past few days, was probably never true: That Newt Gingrich, after flaming out as House speaker and leaving Congress in 1998, had somehow managed to reinvent himself as a freshly relevant Republican leader for the 21st century.

Frank James of NRP SAYS Newt’s “political obituaries are springing up all over the place like the dandelions in my yard.”

Reuters REPORTS that the comments Gingrich has made about the Ryan plan “leave the Democrats with a potentially very large stick with which to beat the GOP as the 2012 campaign for president, House and selected Senate seats gains momentum.”

British writer Tim Stanley OPINES that “the Gingrich candidacy does not match the mood of the contemporary conservative grassroots. The Tea Party ethic is anti-establishment and harbours little nostalgia about the pre-2008 Republican Party. Newt is in danger of looking like a cautious old man in an age that belongs to young fanatics.”

Another Brit, Richard Adams, SAYS of Gingrich that “the years have not tempered his weaknesses: a big mouth coupled with miniscule political judgment.”

HuffPo’s John Ward REPORTS that “the former House Speaker from Georgia’s once biggest advantage over other long shot candidates — an established fundraising network — is withering before his eyes.”

Another HuffPo scribe, Chris Weigant, FOCUSES on what he calls “the bigger fact” about the right-wing backlash against Gingrich:

[I]t seems to me that most pundits are missing a big underlying new reality in the Republican Party. The focus has all been on Newt himself, what he said, and the subsequent ire directed at him by prominent righties. But after the dust settles on the incident itself, people are going to notice the bigger fact this fracas has illuminated: Republicans are doubling down on Paul Ryan’s budget rather than backing away from it, to the point where it has now become the acid test for Republicans in 2012. Which should be good news for Democrats.